


Will You Help Me

by choosyq



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Post-War, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 04:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12449967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choosyq/pseuds/choosyq
Summary: Steve finds Shepard.





	Will You Help Me

He wished he could say it was the smoke that made his eyes water right then. That the debris around him helped, too. That it was because of anything other than the man he clutched in his arms.

A day had gone by since the signal went out, destroying the reapers. He’d waited on baited breath for some kind of word that Shepard was alive. A signal. A cry from other soldiers and civilians, or Hackett miraculously showing up to give him the good news.

Another day went by, then another. Each day he helped pull people from rubble, fly supplies to one area and then another, always keeping himself busy but also listening.

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and he knew with every fiber of his being that there wasn’t a chance of finding Shepard alive.

On day five he’d woke up with dirt in his boots and caked in his hair, and he was ordered to help find Shepard’s body. He should have been doing that since day one; he should’ve been trying to find he man he loved from the very moment the first reaper fell.

He found Shepard on day six, half buried under some metal and concrete. The damage was almost too much for him to stomach, but he reached for Shepard anyway, reached for the man he used to know. How long had he laid there, alive and in pain and calling for help? Or had it been quick, like falling asleep?

Too many questions he didn’t know the answers to. There would be a countless number of sleepless nights ahead of him, asking himself those questions over and over.

A hand settled on his shoulder, shaking him from his thoughts. The gesture said everything. It was time to put Shepard down, he was dead, holding onto him wasn’t going to bring him back. But he wouldn’t let go. Not yet.

Steve’s eyes stung, and he wiped at them quickly; he wasn’t ready to cry in front of them. “I can’t leave him here like this, and I…I can’t move him myself,” he struggled to say, his voice thin and fragile. He turned to look at the soldier whose hand was on his shoulder. “Will you help me?”

The soldier nodded briefly, and without saying a word, began to remove the rubble that was on Shepard’s body.

He wished it was the smoke and the debris that made his chest ache, made his lungs and throat burn. He wished it was anything but what it really was.


End file.
